Michael Faraday Biography

by

Max Stanford

Arguably one of the most influential chemists, physicists, experimenter, and inventor of the modern age, Michael Faraday’s work with electricity has profoundly changed the world. Born in Newington Butts, England to a poor family in 1791, Michael Faraday received only the most basic of educations. When he was fourteen he took up an apprenticeship with a bookbinder.

In this he was able to read extensively on the subjects of science. This sparked his curiosity into the world of chemistry and physics and when he was 21 he attended four lectures by chemist Humphry Davy and eventually became his assistant at the Royal Institution. Under Davy’s tutelage, Faraday toured Europe for 18 months with Davy and his wife. Faraday was able to meet the most leading chemists and physicists of his time in their home countries, and even performed experiments with them. Faraday continued to work under Davy and his peers at the Royal Institute and pursued his own studies of electromagnetic rotation. In 1821 Faraday published his works on the subject which proved to be a basis for the electric motor. He would not seriously revisit electromagnetic rotation for another ten years since he was busy with other projects. In 1826 Faraday started two traditions at the Royal Institution which were the Royal Institution’s Friday Evening Discourses and the Christmas Lectures. Both discourse and lectures still occur today. In 1831 Faraday continued his studies with electromagnets and discovered the basis behind electric generators and transformers. The discovery was that of electromagnetic induction which produces an electric current via a conductor moving through a magnetic field. Faraday’s work paved the way for harnessing electricity as a viable energy source. An interesting note, Faraday’s accomplishments as a mathematician were nothing to write home about. Competent in only the simplest algebra, Faraday was still able to take the electrical field leaps in bounds ahead; even though his peers were largely brilliant mathematicians. He succeeded by being a brilliant experimentalist and he could reason what was happening without the mathematical formulas. In fact, James Maxwell summarized Faraday’s work into mathematical equations and found that Faraday was indeed an accomplished mathematician, even if he didn’t grasp the written principles. While his papers on electromagnetic rotation and his discovery of electromagnetic induction were groundbreaking and world changing, they do not make up the total of his works. Faraday was also a chemist of the highest degree and discovered the compound benzene, invented an early Bunsen burner, invented the words anode, cathode, electrode, and ion, and he went on to become the first Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution. Faraday’s work has ultimately changed the course of history in no small measure. To honor him, the electrical measurement ‘farad’ was coined after his name. Faraday died in the summer of 1867 and is regarded as one of the founding members of modern science.

Max Stanford is a freelance writer for

Worldwide Power Products

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Michael Faraday Biography